A Complete (Untested) Horror RPG

[Christoffer Lernö]

I really have trouble with Ygg. To kind of let me think of something else I wrote up an RPG. This is is a written down guide to the Horror one-shots I'd run occasionally with a little clearer mechanic and with the stats ripped out (they served no purpose). It's an illusionist type of game. Heavily so and that's a Good Thing (tm) for this type of game.
If you see any flaws, do point them out. I'll be typing this into a word processor later and put it up as a PDF.


EVIL TALES

Player's section

As a player you have to take control of your character and get  scared. That's your two priorities. Trying to do stupid things that  people in movies do is A Good Thing (tm) in this game. It  gives the GM more opportunities to throw scary things at you. If  you're scared it means you aren't dead... yet.

Archetype

First you have to figure out your Archetype. Are you the smart  guy who secretly wants to date the popular girl? Are you the popular  girl or her friend who's got a rep of sleeping with anyone? Or are you  the rebel who in the end turns out to be the hero? Anything goes. If  you have no ideas whatsoever, just write "teenage girl" or "13 year  old nerd" or whatever. At least get the approximate age and gender.  That's all you need really (but it's more fun with a more descriptive  archetype).

Besides this you can note down your general appearance or just  make it up as you go along.

Traits

Traits are what defines your character, what sets it apart from  others. It can be a little less serious stuff like "knows how to  impress the girls", "always tries to look cool" to actual skills like  "Astrophysics". If you're extra strong or extra weak, write down  those things as traits too.

In addition, you assign a number to the traits. 1 for a really weak  trait, 20 for something you are master of. You can go up beyond that,  but then we're talking about genious stuff and really extraordinary  abilities. "Astrophysics 30" is what you'd have as a brilliant  professor in Astrophysics. The crazy professor who made The Monster  would probably have "Weird Sciences 40" or so.

Choose as many traits as you like.

Examples:
Failing to get out of bed int the morning 18
Eating cafeteria food 5
Looking stupid when asked about maths 15
Accidentally trip myself 6

How to use traits

To use a trait you pick up a d20 and try to roll below or equal to  your rating. If you succeed you get to do something extraordinary  with it, otherwise you perform at normal level. Doing something  extraordinary means you can come up with some out of the ordinary  thing you did with it. You are at liberty to come up with things but  the GM will have the final say.

If you something really difficult or the circumstances are really  good (like try to do brain surgery with a pocket-knife), there are  modifiers for your trait rating.

Code Select Expand

Really easy +10
Hard        -10
Impossible  -20

If after modification your trait is lower than 1, then you can't  even try to use that trait in this situation.

Facing a challenge

When you try to do something that might have a chance of failure you  first check if you have a trait that could take care of it. If you  have, then roll for the trait first. If the roll is a success, then  you go about it the usual way (dictate what's happening with GM  moderation)

If you fail the trait roll or you don't have a trait then you  roll a Default Roll using a D20. The GM sets the odds:

Code Select Expand

Situation       Succeed on
Could fail      1-15
50-50           1-10
Probably fails  1-5
A real longshot 1
No chance       auto failure


If two characters are fighting or competing, they first roll for  traits. If both succeed with their traits, then see who rolled the  lowest. If that's a tie too, reroll the dice. If both fails then let  both a roll a D20. The lowest result wins. Got that?

Let's take it again.

a) You both have traits. You both roll traits. If one of you succeeds  and the other loses then the one with successes tells what happens.  If both of you rolls success then the one with the lowest die roll  decides. If that's equal too then you both reroll. If you both fail,  then resolve it as if you both wouldn't have traits.

b) One of you have traits. That person rolls. If it's a success then  that person tells what happens. If it's a failure the odds just  evened. Resolve it as if you don't have traits.

c) Noone has a relevant trait. Simply take a d20 each and roll.  Lowest roll wins. Reroll ties.

That's the end of it

Just play your character with passion, try to get into trouble and do  stupid things just like in the movies. It will be fun.


GM section

You're going to run a horror adventure. And not just any adventure.  It's gonna be short, intensive and scary. The player characters are  only meant to last to the end chapter, so if you kill them in the end  it doesn't matter. Horror movies can have both a "heroes win" and  "monsters win" ending. The point is that the heroes needs to stay to  the end.

NPCs

To have fun you first need to populate your world. Everything  controlled by you is called an NPC, although a "puppet" would be a  better description.

There are two big types of NPCs, Victims and Monsters.  Your monsters will try to kill or do other stuff to the players and  to the victims, the victims are mainly there to die before the  players (even though they might try to make ultimately futile  attempts to kill monsters as well).

Neither of your NPCs needs to be written down. It can be good to have  a list of NPC names written down though, especially if they are  supposed to socialize with the players. You can hand it over to the  players to make their NPC friends though. It doesn't matter. THEY  WILL ALL DIE ANYWAY (insert insane laughter here).

How to run an adventure - the set-up

First, have a set up: The characters are on a skiing trip to the  Alps, they are out camping at a remote site, they are visiting a  friend in a small village in the middle of nowhere. Usually it's  better to have a limited place rather than letting the players run  around too much. The focus on this game is scares, not investigation.

Make the players come up with suitable characters for the adventure,  and maybe some NPC friends. They should hand in all the NPC friends  to you so you can use them as monster fodder later.

Part two, close the door on them

First, let everything seem perfectly normal. They are out skiing or  bathing or whatever. Let the players play out a little normal stuff  with their characters. When they seem to feel secure... close the  door on them.

First, make sure they can't leave (you don't have to let them know  that to begin with though), maybe a snowstorm made it impossible to  get out of the house or whatever. Then let the weird things begin.

You should have an approximate idea of the stuff that the weirdness  does, but don't, I repeat, don't limit yourself by it.

Weirdness can be sudden disappearance of persons, or things, or  strange marks or a break-in, or strange noices or whatever. It should  be vague and not reveal much of what is supposed to happen. The  character should be able to try to come up with explanations, but  they should all feel a little far fetched.

Part three, pump up the volume

Try to ensure that panic does not break out immediately (if it does,  skip to part four immediately). Just keep on hinting stuff and make  omnious things happen. Maybe more disappearances, maybe more noices  and more signs. They still shouldn't be sure what is happening. Don't  feel limited by the monsters you are thinking about. Weirdness  attracts weirdness. Even if the monster is a werewolf the weirdness  can include ouija boards working on their own, doors slamming shut  and so on with no particular explanation for it.

Encourage the players (use the NPCs, they are excellent to maintain a  irrational rational behaviour in the face of weirdness) to act out their normal patterns and try to ignore the weirdness.

Then slowly turn that weirdness dial and repeat.

Part four, freaking out

When you notice people are beginning to get scared or are really getting into the mystery. In other words, when not even the NPCs can  keep them calm. This is when you let all hell break loose.

This is the important part. Keep up the pressure, make a new revelation around every corner. Remember the unexplained and unseen is twice as scary as that which can be seen and explored. Make the  characters try to flee and stop them at every corner.

This is a good time to hurt characters and maybe kill them (for rules on how to do that, check under "wounds and stuff").

Part five, endgame

Keep track here, are they beginning to despair yet? Then it's time to  give them a deus ex machina (actually a player can also provide it,  if you like a suggestion for "why" things happen that a player  suggests, go with it).
Now with a why and a how to defeat the monsters, it's time for the end game.

First you have to decide if you have a double, single or deceptive end  game.

In the single one, then the players do their stuff, succeed and  that's it. The game is over.

In a deceptive end, then the players do  their stuff, you pretend they succeed. You start wrapping up the  story and then you kill them.

In a double endgame, the players try plan A and it might seem to work (or might not, depends on what's  best for the story), however it doesn't so the players have to run around some more (go back to part four here) and return to the final endgame which might be a single or a deceptive one (although a  deceptive one is a bit annoying at this point)

Making your monster

There are a lot of ways to go about this. You can have one or many,  visible or invisible. A few good rules though: don't let the people  see monsters too soon (wait until Part 4). If you let monsters hunt  the players, it's good to have lesser monsters do that and let the  big reall monster stay unseen. What is unseen is much more scary. You  can also let the monster be, or possess a character or NPC (or even a  body part of a character as Evil Dead illustrates).

Wounds and stuff

Characters might get wounds and they might die. Usually if they get  attacked bya monster they will get hurt. It's up to you as a GM to  decide how much. A good measure would be to have 4 wound levels:  Unhurt, Scratched, Wounded and Dead.

Unhurt means the character has been able to run away from the  monsters thus far.

Scratched means the monsters have been able to draw blood.  Very important if the monsters are zombies or something. It's a good  trick to take over characters who are scratched or worse. Make it  curable though, unless it is end game.

Wounded mean the character is badly wounded and probably will  die in the end without medical help. It's hard for the character to  be effective at this point, so make the player always roll 2D20 and  pick the highest when doing rolls.

Dead no character should permanently die unless it's  end-game. Anyway, the only people who die before Part 4 should be  NPCs except if there's a special plot point to it. Character death is  acceptable in the following situations:

It's end game
The character will return from the dead
It only looks like the character died
The player annoyed the GM

Running monsters and NPCs

Unlike the players, you don't need stats for your monsters and NPCs.  Sure, you can do it (just follow the same guidelines), but it's  unnecessary work. Just make the players roll against the difficulties  you provide.

Common scenes

Fights: let the players describe what they want to do and they you  weave their rolls into what happens. If monsters are attacking them,  let them roll for escaping using the mechanic in "Facing a  Challenge". If they get hit, again use the same mechanic for them  to try to survice with mere scratches (or merely get wounded if the  monster is bad enough). If they hit the monsters, let them roll for  chances of hurting it, then you decide how much the monster got hurt.
They shouldn't know anything about the monster's capabilities. If  they feel like they're fighting a fair game it's not horror.

Trying to unlock a door, figure out a book, jump from a roof to  another or something: Let them roll for traits if they have them,  otherwise you set the odds. Remember you decide the quality of the  outcome. Maybe they unlock the door, but what happens when they do?  You are the story teller here, you scare them!

To keep in mind

Keep up the pace. Start slow and go faster. Don't let them rest.  Resting is not horror. If they try to rest by staying at a place, let  the horror visit them. It doensn't need to be the main monster, it  can be some random weirdness. Remember, let them see as little as  possible. There is nothing as scary as the unseen. And most importantly of all, pick up on the player's hints. If they come up with good scary things on their own, if they fear something, let that happen.

Now go out and scare some players!

[Christoffer Lernö]

I have no idea if this game is interesting or not. So should I PDF it and put it up for download or are your feelings that noone would bother playing it anyway? Let me know.

[Demonspahn]

Unfortunately I am only able to skim this right now but I have a few basic suggestions, mostly in chargen.  

1.  I would put a limit on the number of traits---no less than 3, no more than 5.  If it's something that common sense says their archetype should know how to do and they don't have the particular trait, just assign a bonus to the roll.  
 
2. I would put an overall cap on point distribution.  Something like 3 traits, 40 points or 5 traits, 70 points with a max of 19 for PCs (20's always fail; also means you have to tweak the modifiers a bit).   Maybe even work something out like it costs double or triple points if you want a trait not typical of your archetype as in---Archetype:  Adorable Little Girl Who Bonds With Another Character   Trait: Trained with assault rifle.  

3. I think character death before the ending should always be a real possibility.  Best way to scare the players and to demonstrate the urgency of the situation is to off one of the characters.  

4.  I absolutely _despise_ when people post a game/setting/system for feedback and someone says "sounds like ______________" but I have to mention that the  overall premise of the game sounds a lot like Dead Meat, although more fleshed out as well as more oriented toward horror/slasher type movies.  This is not a bad thing at all, just thought I should mention it.


But overall I like it Chris.  Breaking the session up into parts does a good job of pacing a horror movie (although in movies, some often die before endgame).  I like the idea of creating archetypical movie people although I wish there was some sort of rewards system to encourage the players to do "movie things".  I really like the description of the different types of endings.   If my pumpkin plate wasn't so full right now I would give it a run on 10/31---it sounds like it would be a fun Halloween game.

They shouldn't know anything about the monster's capabilities. If they feel like they're fighting a fair game it's not horror.

_So_ well said.

Pete

[Christoffer Lernö]

There's a reason why there is no need to make a cap on points or traits:

THEY WILL ALL DIE ANYWAY

Ahem sorry, I'm repeating myself. But look at Friday the 13th part 8(??). Jason follows his victims to the big city and at one occasion one of the guys who is wiz at martial-arts goes toe to toe with Jason. Oh he lands some punches, looks like it works. And then Jason gets serious.

In some stories the helpless teenagers finally manage to get away and get competent people (police, military, gun-toting maniac monster hunter or whatever) to help them. Everyone breathes out: finally some people who has what it takes to stop the monsters. However, these guys tend to die even faster than the helpless teenagers who run away from things.

Or to put it short: It doesn't matter how good you are, how many skills you have. There is nothing that will help you survive except maybe your own quick thinking.

About 3). There should always be the THREAT of player death. And like it says: if the player annoys the GM, character death might be permanent. What I didn't write was what "player annoying the GM" means. It includes not running away from monsters, trying to foolishly fight it and other things that always leads to death in horror movies. However, the GM should never kill a character who is trying to run away. That would be totally pointless.

Maybe I should make the above clearer in the rules though.

4) I checked through Dead Meat, and I see what you're hinting at. Same kind of episode handling of the story. One important note though. The episode handling is for the GM only. The players shouldn't know what part they are in. Besides, there is no need for the GM to play the parts as I lay them out, but almost all horror movies follow this pattern. Actually the more they follow it the better they are. A lot of movies would have done much better if they had followed the advice of not revealing the monsters too early (or at all). Anyway. Back to Dead Meat, also notice there is actually a combat section. However, in real horror movies, once you get to the fighting part you are usually beyond rescuing. In some cases you might be able to do something to free yourself so you can run away. Fighting with monsters is a sure way of dying. If you can fight the monsters and win they are not monsters, they are just ugly animals or something.

I don't know if you need a reward system. I ran these kinds of adventures without one, and it worked. Then again, if someone would do un-movie like things I'd make things worse, much worse.

I was playing one game with among others, my sister (still scared of the dark at soon-to-be 27). When bad things started to happen in the party in the woods she immediately insisted they take the car back to the village.
Initially I had thought of simply running "the haunted old place in the woods" but she wasted that idea. What happens? Well I bring out the full artillery. They get to the village, but there is noone around. Weird. They see a door to one of the houses opening and one of the people in the party (a player controlled character) feels a pull to go in there. At this point my sister is almost panicing. "Don't let her get in there!!!" she yells.
So they throw that character in the car and then drive for hours until they get to a big town. It's now early in the morning.
They enter the a police station and start to report what happens to the police. The police they report to keeps nodding and and taking notes. Finally he says: "It's good that you came here, you don't need to worry about anything at all, everything is under control" and then... the monster takes off his policeman mask.

"You're all dead, congratulations".

My sister was almost killing me because I scared her so much with that adventure. Anyway, this is my philosophy: if people are running away from the adventure, try to lure them in. If it doesn't work, end it with a bang. Either way they will get scared as hell.

[Demonspahn]

THEY WILL ALL DIE ANYWAY

Heh, heh.  I like this kind of game.  

OK but really, I know the ending and you know the ending, but the players don't.  My thought with the numbers was to limit time on chargen so you can get to the story.  I have some players who really miss the point of these kinds of games and their eyes light up when you say "no limits".  

Again, sorry about the Dead Meat comparison.  I personally like to look over games with similar themes.  

Again, I like the game.

Pete

PS - Little sisters are fun, aren't they.  I think mine is still traumatized from me jumping out of dark corners when we were kids.  :)

[Christoffer Lernö]

I don't know why you keep apologizing for the comparison with other games Pete. Quite ok.
About little sisters: You know what doesn't kill them makes them stronger, right. So you were doing her a favour. That's the way I like to think about it anyway. :)

[Christoffer Lernö]

By the way, would anyone be interested in a pdf of Evil Tales with a few corrections and additions for improved playability?

[Kester Pelagius]

If two characters are fighting or competing, they first roll for  traits. If both succeed with their traits, then see who rolled the  lowest. If that's a tie too, reroll the dice. If both fails then let  both a roll a D20. The lowest result wins. Got that?

I suppose what you've outlined so far looks good.  (Apologies, been having a difficult time logging in of late.)  My one comment is this:

Why make it so that an "success" for one side must be a necessary outcome of the rolls?

Wouldn't it seem better to just have the result be that, if once players roll so many times, and keep tieing, that the situation is either a draw or both sides narrowly missed/or marginally hit each other?


Like Marlon Brando at the end of a day of shooting Apocalypse Now...

"I can think of no more dialogue today."


Kind Regards.

[Mike Holmes]

Also, in the "Sounds Like" category, see Jared's Squeam (version whichever it's on right now).

Mike